Remarks by President
Bill Clinton in Address to the People of Berlin at the Brandenburg Gate.
Berlin, Germany, July 12, 1994.

Citizens of free
Berlin, citizens of United Germany, Chancellor Kohl, Mayor Diepken,
Berliners the world over, thank you for this wonderful welcome to your
magnificent city. (Applause.)

We stand together
where Europe's heart was cut in half and we celebrate unity. We stand
where crude walls of concrete separated mother from child, and we meet
as one family. We stand where those who sought a new life instead found
death. And we rejoice in renewal.

Berliners, you have
won your long struggle. (Applause.) You have proved that no wall can
forever contain the mighty power of freedom. (Applause.)

Within a few years,
an American president will visit a Berlin that is again the seat of
your government. And I pledge to you today a new American embassy will
also stand in Berlin. (Applause.)

Half a century has
passed since Berlin was first divided -- 33 years since the Wall went
up. In that time, one half of this city lived encircled, and the other
half enslaved. But one force endured: your courage. Your courage has
taken many forms -- the bold courage of June 17th, 1953 when those trapped
in the east threw stones at the tanks of tyranny; the quiet courage
to lift children above the Wall so that their grandparents on the other
side could see those they loved but could not touch; the inner courage
to reach for the ideas that make you free; and the civil courage --
civile courage -- of five years ago when, starting in the strong hearts
and candlelit streets of Leipzig, you turned your dreams of a better
life into the chisels of liberty. (Applause.)

Now, you who found
the courage to endure, to resist, to tear down the Wall, must found
a new civile courage -- the courage to build. The Berlin Wall is gone.
Now our generation must decide, what will we build in its place. Standing
here today, we can see the answer -- a Europe where all nations are
independent and democratic; where free markets and prosperity know no
borders; where our security is based on building bridges, not walls;
where all our citizens can go as far as their God-given abilities will
take them and raise their children in peace and hope.

The work of freedom
is not easy. It requires discipline, responsibility and a faith strong
enough to endure failure and criticism. And it requires vigilance. Here,
in Germany, in the United States, and throughout the entire world, we
must reject those who would divide us with scalding words about race,
ethnicity, or religion. (Applause.)

I appeal especially
to the young people of this nation -- believe you can live in peace
with those who are different from you. Believe in your own future. Believe
you can make a difference and summon your own courage to build, and
you will. (Applause.)

There is reason
for you to believe. Already, the new future is taking shape in the growing
chorus of voices that speak the common language of democracy. In the
growing economies of Western Europe, the United States and our partners.
In the progress of economic reform, democracy and freedom in lands that
were not free. In NATO's Partnership for Peace where 21 nations have
joined in military cooperation and pledge to respect each other's borders.

It is to all of
you in pursuit of that new future that I say in the name of the pilots
whose airlift kept Berlin alive, in the name of the sentries at Checkpoint
Charlie who stood face-to-face with enemy tanks, in the name of every
American president who has come to Berlin, in the name of the American
forces who will stay in Europe to guard freedom's future -- in all of
their names, I say "Amerika steht an ihrer Seite, jetzt und fuer immer."
(Applause.)

America is on your
side now and forever. Moments ago, with my friend, Chancellor Kohl,
I walked where my predecessors could not, through the Brandenburg Gate.
For over two centuries in every age, that gate has been a symbol of
the time. Sometimes it has been a monument to conquest and a tower of
tyranny.

But in our own time,
you, courageous Berliners, have again made the Brandenburg what its
builders meant it to be -- a gateway. Brandenburg what its builders
meant it to be, a gateway. (Applause.) Now, together, we can walk through
that gateway to our destiny, to a Europe united, united in peace, united
in freedom, united in progress for the first time in history. Nothing
will stop us. All things are possible. "Nichts wird uns aufhalten. Alles
ist moeglich. Berlin ist frei." (Applause.) Berlin is free. (Applause.)

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